The introduction and prolog present key concepts to understanding the rest of the book. The Introduction expresses that the purpose of all Zen teaching is to make you go beyond yourself, to think beyond words and discover what your own mind and beings are. This is something I do not see enough people around me doing. Perhaps it is because "English is thoroughly dualistic in its basic assumptions and has not had the opportunity over centuries to develop a way of expressing non dualistic Buddhist id

Result the only thing that can make the mind 'wavy' is yourself. The idea that the mind is contained all in itself logically doesn't make sense but then again it does. things are all around us and we have senses to pick them up with so logically something we sense will effect us, but this Buddhist thought explains that it only seems like something out side our mind effects us, when really it is our own mind effecting itself. When one thinks in a self contained way "you have some security in your feeling. As your mind does not expect anything from outside, it is always filled"(35). Thus nothing can effect the mind except your own perception.

When first reading the breathing chapter, it occurred that trying not to be aware of time is impossible short of being unconscious. But the next chapter, Control, explains that the best way to control the mind is to let the mind roam free. "The true purpose is to see things as they are, to observe things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. This is to put everything under control in its widest sense"(33). The chapter after this, Mind Waves, explains that the mind will calm itself down if left ideal rather than any particular effort needed to calm it down. This chapter explains that the mind is self contained; it includes everything rather than being in relation to anything. As a

eas"(15). The prologue is less than two pages yet the author finds its subject so important that it is part of the title. "The Goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind"(21). A beginners mind is a mind that always looks at this like they are new. I understand the importance of the being mind to be that when we don't look at things as if they were new we fall into routines and loose the possibilities of a unlimited mind.

The next section 'Right Attitude' emphasizes the need to keep practicing despite the lack of an ultimate grand goal and how to keep practicing. The first chapter in this section, Single-minded way, uses the metaphor of running on a rail road track to explain the idea of continued practice. "There is no beginning or end to the track...just to run on the track is our way...but when you become curious about the railway track, danger is there...just appreciate the sighs you see from the train. The second chapter explains the importance of repetition. Repetition is necessary to understand enlightenment, how 'flour becomes bread'. Ne

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Approximate Word count = 1636
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)